Domestic Violence

What is Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. It includes physical violence, sexual violence, threats, and emotional abuse. The frequency and severity of domestic violence can vary dramatically.

Domestic Violence in Arizona

In Arizona, first- and second-time domestic violence offenders are not charged with domestic violence; only the third incident is charged as domestic violence. First and second offenders are charged with offenses that then have 'domestic violence flags' attached.

In Arizona in 2010, law enforcement made 25,376 domestic violence-flagged arrests, an increase of 17.8% over arrests in 2001. Many other incidents were not reported to police or did not end in arrests.

Between 2001 and 2010, when controlling for population, arrests for domestic violence aggravated assault increased 82%.

The most common sentence for a perpetrator convicted of aggravated domestic violence (third offense) was probation.

There were 109 domestic violence-related deaths in Arizona in 2014.

In 2012, Arizona ranked 8th in the nation in femicides per capita.

Did You Know?

1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men in the United States have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner.

On a typical day, domestic violence hotlines receive approximately 21,000 calls, an average of close to 15 calls every minute.

Intimate partner violence accounts for 15% of all violent crime.

The presence of a gun in the home during a domestic violence incident increases the risk of homicide by at least 500%.

72% of all murder-suicides involve an intimate partner; 94% of the victims of these crimes are female.